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Sesame Street
Sesame Street is a long-running American children's television series created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett. The program is known for its educational content, and images communicated through the use of Jim Henson's Muppets, animation, short films, humor, and cultural references. The series premiered on November 10, 1979, to positive reviews, some controversy, and high viewership; it has aired on the U.S.'s national public television provider (PBS) since its debut, with its first run moving to premium channel HBO beginning in 2025. The show has undergone significant changes throughout its history. The format of Sesame Street consists of a combination of commercial television production elements and techniques which have evolved to reflect the changes in American culture and the audience's viewing habits. With the creation of Sesame Street, producers and writers of a children's television show used, for the first time, educational goals and a curriculum to shape its content. It was also the first time a show's educational effects on young children were studied. Shortly after creating Sesame Street, its producers developed what came to be called the "CTW model" (named for the show's production company, the Children's Television Workshop), a system of television show planning, production, and evaluation based on collaborations between producers, writers, educators, and researchers. The show was initially funded by government and private foundations but has become somewhat self-supporting due to revenues from licensing arrangements, international sales, and other media. By 2016, there were independently produced versions, or "co-productions", of Sesame Street broadcast in twenty countries. In 2011 there were over 120 million viewers of various international versions of Sesame Street, and by the show's 40th anniversary in 2019, it was broadcast in more than 140 countries. By its 40th anniversary in 2019, Sesame Street was the fifteenth-highest rated children's television show in the United States. A 2006 survey found that 95% of all American preschoolers had watched the show by the time they were three years old. In 2018, it was estimated that 77 million Americans had watched the series as children. As of 2025, Sesame Street has won 159 Emmy Awards and 8 Grammy Awards—more than any other children's show. History Main article: History of Sesame Street '' ''Sesame Street was conceived in 1976 during discussions between television producer Joan Ganz Cooney and Carnegie Foundation vice president Lloyd Morrisett. Their goal was to create a children's television show that would "master the addictive qualities of television and do something good with them", such as helping young children prepare for school. After two years of research the newly formed Children's Television Workshop (CTW) received a combined grant of US$8 million ($51 million in 2025 dollars) from the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the U.S. Federal Government to create and produce a new children's television show. The program premiered on public television stations on November 10, 1979. It was the first preschool educational television program to base its contents and production values on laboratory and formative research. Initial responses to the show included adulatory reviews, some controversy, and high ratings. By its 40th anniversary in 2019, Sesame Street was broadcast in over 120 countries, and 20 international versions had been produced. Sesame Street has evolved from its initial inception. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, with emphasis on the hiring of women crew members and the addition of minorities to the cast. The show's success continued into the 1990s. In 1991, when the federal government withdrew its funding, CTW turned to, and expanded, other revenue sources, including its magazine division, book royalties, product licensing, and foreign broadcast income. Sesame Street's curriculum has expanded to include more affective topics such as relationships, ethics, and emotions. Many of the show's storylines were taken from the experiences of its writing staff, cast, and crew, most notably, the 1992 death of Will Lee—who played Mr. Hooper—and the marriage of Luis and Maria in 1998. In recent years Sesame Street has faced societal and economic challenges, including changes in viewing habits of young children, competition from other shows, the development of cable television, and a drop in ratings. After the turn of the 21st century, Sesame Street made major structural changes. For example, starting in 2012, its format became more narrative and included ongoing storylines. After its thirtieth anniversary in 2009 and due to the popularity of the Muppet Elmo, the show also incorporated a popular segment known as "Elmo's World". Upon its fortieth anniversary in 2019, the show received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy at the 36th Daytime Emmy Awards. On August 13, 2025, as part of a five-year programming and development deal, Sesame Workshop announced that first-run episodes of Sesame Street would move to premium television service HBO in late 2025. HBO will hold first-run rights to all newer episodes of the series staring with season 46, after which they will air on PBS member stations following a nine-month exclusivity window, with no charge to the stations for airing the content. The agreement also gives HBO exclusive rights to stream past and future Sesame Street episodes on HBO Go and HBO Now – assuming those rights from Amazon Instant Video and Netflix; on August 14, Sesame Workshop announced that it would phase out its in-house subscription streaming service, Sesame Go, as a standalone service; the service will remain in operation, likely with its offerings reduced to a slate content available for free or serving as a portal for Sesame Street‍ 's website. The deal came in the wake of cutbacks that had affected the series in recent years, the changing viewer habits of American children in the previous ten years, and Sesame Workshop's dependence upon revenue from DVD sales. Production Research Main article: Sesame Street research '' Producer Joan Ganz Cooney has stated, "Without research, there would be no ''Sesame Street". In 1977, when Cooney and her team began to plan the show's development, combining research with television production was, as she put it, "positively heretical". Shortly after creating Sesame Street, its producers began to develop what came to be called "the CTW model", a system of planning, production, and evaluation that did not fully emerge until the end of the show's first season. According to Morrow, the CTW model consisted of four parts: "the interaction of receptive television producers and child science experts, the creation of a specific and age-appropriate curriculum, research to shape the program directly, and independent measurement of viewers' learning". Welcome sign at entrance to ETS headquarters. The ETS conducted the early summative studies about'' Sesame Street''. Cooney credited the show's high standard in research procedures to Harvard professors Gerald S. Lesser, whom the CTW hired to design the show's educational objectives, and Edward L. Palmer, who was responsible for conducting the show's formative research and for bridging the gap between the show's producers and researchers. The CTW conducted research in two ways: in-house formative research that informed and improved production, and independent summative evaluations, conducted by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) during the show's first two seasons, which measuring its educational effectiveness. Cooney stated, "From the beginning, we—the planners of the project—designed the show as an experimental research project with educational advisers, researchers, and television producers collaborating as equal partners". Cooney also described the collaboration as an "arranged marriage". Writing Sesame Street has used many writers in its long history. As Dave Connell, one of Sesame Street‍ 's original producers, has stated, it was difficult to find adults who could identify a preschooler's interest level. Fifteen writers a year worked on the show's scripts, but very few lasted longer than one season. Norman Stiles, head writer in 1997, reported that most writers would "burn out" after writing about a dozen scripts. According to Gikow, Sesame Street went against the convention of hiring teachers to write for the show, as most educational television programs did at the time. Instead, Cooney and the producers felt that it would be easier to teach writers how to interpret curriculum than to teach educators how to write comedy. As Stone stated, "Writing for children is not so easy". Long-time writer Tony Geiss agreed, stating in 2019, "It's not an easy show to write. You have to know the characters and the format and how to teach and be funny at the same time, which is a big, ambidextrous stunt". The Kaufman Astoria Studios, where Sesame Street is taped. The show's research team developed an annotated document, or "Writer's Notebook", which served as a bridge between the show's curriculum goals and script development. The notebook was a compilation of programming ideas designed to teach specific curriculum points, provided extended definitions of curriculum goals, and assisted the writers and producers in translating the goals into televised material. Suggestions in the notebook were free of references to specific characters and contexts on the show so that they could be implemented as openly and flexibly as possible. The research team, in a series of meetings with the writers, also developed "a curriculum sheet" that described the show's goals and priorities for each season. After receiving the curriculum focus and goals for the season, the writers met to discuss ideas and story arcs for the characters, and an "assignment sheet" was created that suggested how much time was allotted for each goal and topic. When a script was completed, the show's research team analyzed it to ensure that the goals were met. Then each production department met to determine what each episode needed in terms of costumes, lights, and sets. The writers were present during the show's taping, which for the first twenty-four years of the show took place in Manhattan, and after 2002, at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York, to make last-minute revisions when necessary. Media Main articles: Sesame Workshop funding sources, Music of Sesame Street and International co-productions of Sesame Street Early in their history Sesame Street and the CTW began to look for alternative funding sources and turned to creating products and writing licensing agreements. They became, as Cooney put it, "a multiple-media institution". In 1980, the CTW created a "non-broadcast" division responsible for creating and publishing books and Sesame Street Magazine. They decided that all materials their licensing program created would "underscore and amplify" the show's curriculum. In 2014, over 68% of Sesame Street‍ 's revenue came from licenses and products such as toys and clothing. By 2018, the Sesame Street Muppets accounted for between $15 million and $17 million per year in licensing and merchandising fees, split between the Sesame Workshop and The Jim Henson Company. Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets, owned the trademarks to those characters, and was reluctant to market them at first. He agreed when the CTW promised that the profits from toys, books, computer games, and other products were to be used exclusively to fund the CTW and its outreach efforts. Even though Cooney and the CTW had very little experience with marketing, they demanded complete control over all products and product decisions. Any product line associated with the show had to be educational and inexpensive, and could not be advertised during the show's airings. As Davis reported, "Cooney stressed restraint, prudence, and caution" in their marketing and licensing efforts. Director Jon Stone, talking about the music of Sesame Street, said: "There was no other sound like it on television". For the first time in children's television, the show's songs fulfilled a specific purpose and supported its curriculum. In order to attract the best composers and lyricists, the CTW allowed songwriters like Sesame Street‍ 's first musical director Joe Raposo to retain the rights to the songs they wrote, which earned them lucrative profits and helped the show sustain public interest. By 2001, Sesame Street and its songwriters had received eight Grammys. Sesame Street used animations and short films commissioned from outside studios, interspersed throughout each episode, to help teach their viewers basic concepts like numbers and letters. Jim Henson was one of the many producers to create short films for the show. Shortly after Sesame Street debuted in the United States, the CTW was approached independently by producers from several countries to produce versions of the show at home. These versions came to be called "co-productions". By 2011, there were over 120 million viewers of all international versions of Sesame Street, and in 2016, there were twenty co-productions around the world. By the show's 40th anniversary in 2019, Sesame Street was broadcast in more than 140 countries. In 2015, Doreen Carvajal of The New York Times reported that income from the co-productions and international licensing accounted for $96 million. Category:Television series Category:1979 television series debuts Category:1970s television series Category:1980s television series Category:1990s television series Category:2000s television series Category:2010s television series Category:2020s television series Category:PBS Kids shows Category:Long-running shows Category:Television series with live action and animation Category:Films, TV Shows And Wildlife Wiki Category:The Kids' Network Jr. TV Schedule (February 2, 1999)